Apr 2, 2008

More Updates From The Real Digital Revolution

One of the main tenets of the "The Real Digital Revolution" is that nothing kills a good ad faster than a bad website review of the product. So that all the charming, brand-enhancing advertising in the world won't do you a lick of good if I go online and find that no one (peers or experts) really likes the product.

And since this theory holds doubly true for high-ticket items, I thought that this snippet of a review of the charming VW spot above from The Truth About Cars, was particularly telling:

VW seems to have an extremely low opinion of its buyers. Then again, given VW’s poor reliability, high cost of maintenance and repair, and high price points, maybe VW knows exactly what it's doing.

Ouch.

But that's sort of my point: if all the buzz online about VW the car is negative, no amount of positive buzz about VW, the commercial is going to help them sell cars.

3 comments:

fatc
said...

All true. Though I'm sure we'll see some VW stuff in the next CA Annual regardless. One more result of the slew of fake briefs and ads: even the real campaigns we've all seen on TV need not reflect a product truth or be relevant to the customer's life to be considered "great." In those cases, the award is more for getting your client to finance your flip little idea. LIke the judges are going, "Dude, your client let you do that? It's just a goofy gag! That's so awesome!" Pretty sad, though I suppose it's always been that way to a degree.

you know I've long been a believer that the Internet killed bullshit in advertising. Ignorance and confusion were our friends. Interestingly GM just shifted a huge chunk of its ad budget online. I've never understood how not very amusing tv spots are supposed to build car brands. When I shop fora car its no joke.

Agreed, TSR. In fact, when I'm car shopping, I'd say TV spots are the LEAST helpful/important thing. The most? Online forums and the ever popular 4-color brochure on heavy paper, the thicker and more chock-full of info and beauty shots the better. I collect those things and refer back to them again and again when I've got new car fever. A nice brochure is all part of the hunt, and says way more about the car and the company behind it than a quick-hit, laundry list of features, barely-see-the-car-for-more-than-two seconds TV spot ever could.